Dismissal

Kirk Lyons’s Master Plan

For the past three years, the conflict within the SCV has revolved around philosophical questions concerning the direction of the SCV. Those who have paid attention know that Kirk Lyons is the philosophical leader of the new SCV that he, Ron Wilson, and Denne Sweeney have built. These three men have a choke-hold on the organization and will never let go until the membership rejects their plan for the SCV’s future. What exactly IS that plan? Well, here it is in Kirk Lyons’s own words as revealed in a discussion about SCV membership cards. Read it for yourself. Take from it what you will. I have highlighted the parts that I find particularly revealing. Decide for yourself if you think this is what the SCV and the larger "Confederate Community" ought to be doing in contemporary America. Remember, these are Kirk Lyons’s words and this is his vision for the future of the SCV:

"Dear (name withheld):

The SCV is not government, the rights involved in our SCV Constitution are not the same inalienable rights that have been stripped from us in the real world. I would fight to my dying breath to limit the power of government AND to increase the power of the SCV National in the same breath -they are not inconsistent positions.

"By asking the membership to empower the national leadership to fight a cultural war we are emulating Lee and Jackson, not Lincoln or Stevens. We need an army - not more government, we need discipline and dedication to victory not more silly "Membership card wars."

"Wars cannot be fought as a debating society or by putting up with the "I aint fighting until its in my own backyard" mentality." Such thinking is the hallmark of losers on the ash heap of history. Our enemies are united, rich and own the media - we cannot hope to fight them with our current antiquated structure. But no new organization has the credibility, members, money, infrastructure, and will to take on the culture mulchers. Only the SCV - so it is up to us to turn the fishing trawler into a dreadnought, engage the enemy and win the war. We are the logical leader of all the various elements of the Confederate Community- if not us Who?

"The slackers and grannies have been purged from our ranks - but all I see is small minded people nit-picking the current leadership and treating them as if they are the new grannies, while our opponents continually move the ball closer to their own goal.

"Giving up Camp rights, perks and prerogatives to Division or National is always risky, but I say we have no choice if we are to win. And, we must take that risk or we will simply end up a footnote to history.

I'm very sorry to interrupt the raging Membership card war debate (name withheld) but I thought it was necessary.

"(name withheld)I understand and respect your position but sincerely believe we cannot continue in this war looking backward to the organization as it was set up as our governing model. The 1896 SCV Constitution never ever contemplated the topsy turvy situation the Confederate community finds itself in. We should retain as much of the structure as we can to keep us a Christian fraternity, but I do unabashedly advocate that we become a modern, 21st century Christian war machine capable of uniting the Confederate community and leading it to ultimate victory.

Kirk D. Lyons

ANV COS

More Suspensions in the SCV

The communication reproduced below was recently sent to SCV camps by national Adjutant Jim Dark. The purge of senior SCV members who refused to tow the Lyons/Wilson/Sweeney (League of the South) political line is continuing in Oklahoma and Florida. While the message is filled with the standard SCV half-truths (By the way, Mr. Dark, Save the SCV knows what is going on in Oklahoma and Florida and your version aint it!), it IS interesting to note that the GEC feels empowered to remove camp, division, and brigade officers from their elected and appointed positions. The SCV will also decide what other organizations its members and soon-to-be-former members are allowed to join. (FYI, neo-secessionist groups are on the SCV's "approved list.")

The message: "On October 29, 2005, the General Executive Council of the SCV met in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Among the items considered by the council included disciplinary charges against 10 members of the SCV. Six of the members were officers in the Kirby-Smith Camp #1209 in Jacksonville, Florida, who were accused of attempting to remove their camp from the Sons of Confederate Veterans by vote of an "Executive Council" without seeking input from their own members. Such action was not only unconstitutional, but was a violation of Florida state law. After due and proper notice of the charges against them, these members elected to not respond in any way. In response to the allegations against them, the GEC unanimously passed the following resolution:

Resolved that a committee of three be appointed by the chair, to investigate charges affecting the character of our members: Michael May, Joe Clark, Bill Cowdry, Michael Fisher, Randy Scott and Jerry Wisner, which if true, render them unworthy of membership and that the committee be instructed to report resolutions covering its recommendations. These charges are deemed sufficiently urgent in nature to make suspension warranted, effective November 3, 2005. Said suspension will be for six months or until the resolution of this matter.

The General Executive Council also considered charges against four members of the Oklahoma Division. The charges included using or conspiring to use SCV assets and resources to create a separate organization and enticing members to not renew their SCV memberships. In addition, two websites associated with this organization were copied verbatim from the SCV website in violation of Federal copyright law. Since the four individuals were all serving officers of the Oklahoma Division a strong appearance of conflict of interest was created by their actions. After due and proper notice, one member, Mark L. Cantrell, appeared to contest the charges. The other three members, Charles H. Smith, Jeffrey Massey and Ron Hull did not appear but sent written statements and two members to speak on their behalf. After examining the charges against the members, and weighing the statements of the accused, the General Executive Council unanimously passed the following resolution:

Resolved that a committee of three be appointed by the chair, to investigate charges affecting the character of our members: Jeffrey Massey, Charles H. Smith, Mark Lea Cantrell and Ron Hull, which if true, render them unworthy of membership and that the committee be instructed to report resolutions covering its recommendations. These charges are deemed sufficiently urgent in nature to make suspension warranted, effective November 3, 2005. Said suspension will be for six months or until the resolution of this matter. As a result of the above actions, the members in question are removed from all offices that they currently hold within the SCV, whether at Camp, Brigade or Division level.

For the Commander-in-Chief,
James W. Dark Adjutant-in-Chief
Sons of Confederate Veterans"

The truth about Florida: A soon-to-be-former Florida compatriot reports that only about 90 members have renewed their memberships in his camp of almost 300 members. Votes were held and everybody knew what was going on with the current controversy and camp assets. It is likely that approximately 120 members will renew when the final numbers are in, but many of them are suspicious of the SCV's current national direction. The new Confederate history/heritage group that was formed from dissatisfied camp members will have about 70 members by the end of November. That number could climb to 120 by January. Lawyers have been hired by both sides to devise a distribution of camp assets that both sides will accept.

Other camps in Florida may have lost a total of 150 members. A few months ago, the SCV was saying that Florida had 1800 members. That number is down by about 200-300 from the year before, depending on who's numbers you believe. Many compatriots are angry over smear letters that have been sent around the state about longtime compatriots who are questioning the SCV's new direction. (Remember, Florida is John "the pornographer" Adams's territory: nasty letter-writing is nothing new.)

As soon as these membership numbers become public, expect the Florida SCV to release membership numbers that will "prove" that none of this is happening.